Domanick Davis: This Year’s Clinton Portis?

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Could Texans RB Domanick Davis be this year’s Clinton Portis? That’s the question that I posed to a couple fellow fantasy football owners last week and for which I was laughed at. But why not, I have to ask? Every year there seem to be one or two players that come out of obscurity and end up grabbing all the fantasy football glory. These players usually go in the late rounds of most drafts or simply go undrafted. Everyone expected Onterrio Smith to be that player this year, but Mike Tice has made sure that will not happen. So why do most people think I’m crazy when I make the comparison? Here are the two main arguments that fellow fantasy owners made:

“He gained all his yards against the Jets and Colts. Wait until he plays a real defense!”

“His offensive line is not as good as Denver’s.”

Hey, these are valid arguments, but it also strengthens my case for Domanick Davis. First of all, I get the feeling there seems to be a stigma attached to a player if he plays for the Houston Texans. I agree with most people who say you can’t compare the Texans to the Broncos. The Broncos are the better team hands down and have the better offensive line. That said, if a player produces big numbers on a bad team then how good is that player? What if he played on a good team? Nobody can really answer those questions but we can look at each player’s performance to get a better picture. I compared the statistics for each player’s first five career games. (Note: I’m using five games because Domanick sat out game three of the season)

 
Clinton Portis: First five career games played

 
Domanick Davis: First five career games played

 
Are everyone’s eyes starting to open up a little wider now? Looking at the rushing statistics, they’re almost identical. Portis has a slight edge over Davis in average per rush attempt, touchdowns, and total rushing yards. But Davis has an overwhelming advantage in the passing game. He has nearly four times as many receptions at a higher average than Portis did last year. He had yet to score a touchdown before last week’s game which might have made owners a little wary of the fellow Texan and vulture Stacey Mack stealing end zone glory away from Davis, but Davis came through with two scores against the Colts. Time will only tell whether Mack will continue to be a factor in the red zone, but given the amount of touches that Davis has had the last two games (50) I don’t think owners need to be too worried about it.

I have to respectfully disagree with the argument that Davis hadn’t done anything against a good defense. In week six versus the Titans, Davis ran the ball extremely well against the NFL’s second ranked run defense which only allows 75.4 yards per game. With only 7 rush attempts totaling 59 yards he nearly matched what the Titans defense yields per game. Add the 7 receptions for 70 yards and this guy was a one man wrecking crew against a very good defense. If that’s not enough proof then you might want to take a look back at the first game of the season against Miami. In that game against best rushing defense in the NFL (the Dolphins are only allowing 73.9 yards per game), Davis had 6 carries for 36 yards for an average of 6 yards a carry. Not bad when you consider Stacey Mack only gained 89 yards on 27 attempts for an average of 3.3 yards per attempt. Some people will put forth the argument that in both games against the Dolphins and Titans, Davis did not play the whole game. But you still can’t ignore what he did in limited action. He managed to put up some impressive numbers on very few carries against two of the top rushing defenses in the league.

Personally I think that the last two games were only a taste of what’s to come for this young and talented player. The Texans have another game remaining against the Colts (27th rush defense 131 yards / gm) and one game against the Falcons (30th rush defense 149.7 yards / gm). But they also have games left against the Buccaneers, Titans, and Panthers. I can be proud to admit that I was one the few owners that picked up Davis after the Jacksonville game. At that time, the writing was on the wall that the Stacey Mack era would soon end in Houston. Now that the Domamick Davis era has officially begun in Houston we’ll have to wait and see who wins this argument. But Davis owners have to be very happy with the results so far. Only time will tell how good this back will be to fantasy owners, but he has all the makings of a great waiver wire pickup.

 
Bill Flores began work on this article before Davis’ two touchdown effort at Indianapolis. Great call, Bill – congratulations!